September 22, 2011 4:34 pm

Curry confirmed this afternoon before practice that there had been a change in his role with the team, and that he had been demoted in favor of rookie K.J. Wright.

But Bradley said it’s more of an open competition at outside linebacker, and that the team wanted to take a closer look at Wright with the starting unit.

“K.J. Wright has played very well for us, especially in that first game,” Bradley said. “And we just felt like we wanted to have more competition at that spot, so we’re giving K.J. a chance there yesterday, and we looked him today. And we’ll evaluate it the whole week.

“As you know, the model here is competition. We just felt like we needed to stress that position even more.”

So it’s an open competition at that spot?

“Yeah,” Bradley said. “We’re getting a good look at K.J. this week. You can see he got quite a few of the reps at that spot, and we just need to get him caught up. He’s been playing Mike (middle) linebacker the whole training camp, and preseason and the first game. So we’re trying to get him caught up that position and just see how he responds through tomorrow.”

Bradley said Wright’s feel for the linebacker position has stood out since training camp, and is the reason they decided to give him this opportunity.

“He’s very instinctive and plays very smart, situational football,” Bradley said. “And he’s detailed. He’s just a real good football player. And so we’re just taking a look at that spot and giving him a chance to play SAM (strong-side, outside linebacker) and see how he fits there.”

Obviously Curry is frustrated, but Bradley said he’s handling the situation well.

“He’s good,” Bradley said. “He’s professional. I mean I’m sure he doesn’t like it, and doesn’t like the situation. But he’s responded well. He goes out there and he practices hard. He’s been a true professional.”

Bradley also stressed that Curry still will get his chance to get on the field.

“He’s going to get his chance again,” Bradley said. “We’re going to evaluate it today and tomorrow, and make a final decision on it. But it could be either case that happens, either way he’s going to play. It’s just that we’ve got to see who’s playing better. And that’s really with all our positions, there’s competition. We’re going to create it somehow. We have to, to keep our team moving forward.”

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

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Now this is a dissembling explanation, saying they’re just opening up competition. Call it what it is – a demotion. You don’t see Polumbus playing 1st team over Okung because they’re “promoting competition”.

I really would love to know what the management based their decision on. I really though Curry was playing better than he has since the 1st 5 games of his career. He was actually back in pass coverage and in a position to make some plays, whereas he wasn’t at all last year. Sure, he dropped the pick, but it still prevented an almost certain 1st down reception, so it wasn’t as though it was a negative play.

Still, I wouldn’t say Curry was outstanding. It just looked like he was on the upswing. It would have been more obvious to bench him at almost any time last year.

I think the demotion has more to do with Curry’s salary then Wright’s play. I also think the decision is based on Carrol wanting to get rid of all the players from the old regime and have a team comprised solely of his players, all at the cost of winning now. Trufant is probably next.

Yea sure Gus.Our coaches know how to cover things up better than anybody in the league,lol…I would not be surprised to see Curry traded before the deadline.Hell if you’re gonna rebuild go all out and get value for guys like Tru.Really what do we have to lose at this point?

Displaced,
What good is “winning now”? You’ve said that a couple of times. All “winning now” did last year was drop us back about 20 picks in the draft. Granted, I think it was worth the jubilance just for the BEastquake, but in terms of team building it was a bad thing. Pete took over a mess of a team and it’s going to take a few seasons of mess to get back into contention. Send your rage to Ruskell who left a terrible team in his wake. But quit complaining about not “winning now” because it’s not going to happen. Not with Hasselbeck* still here, not with Curry starting, not with Clipboard Jesus starting (both guys being obviously temporary as evidenced by their short contracts), not with anything. You have the right to complain, but you’re griping about things that don’t matter and are only looking extremely short term. Winning last year was a fluke and wouldn’t have happened in any other division. Ours has 4 rebuilding teams and we hit them when they were weak. I can only see us beating AZ this season. Rams look like they could win playoff game. In fact, the recent history of the Rams is a good model to look at (including having a toad for a coach in Linehan, at least we got rid of our toad after only 1 year), I just hope it doesn’t take as long.

*- I used to think getting rid of Hass was a mistake, even though they did offer him a nice 1 year deal pre-lockout. However, Hass would already be on the injury report behind this young OL. Be glad somebody disposable is back there taking the hits and our QBoF isn’t.

I haven’t heard a peep from him but I really blame us for that. We could have drafted Steven Jackson in 04 but instead we took Tubbs. Apparently we thought Alexander was gonna be the slippery ghost and we didn’t need a beast in the backfield. Granted that’s hindsight but Tubbs was nothing, unfortunately. Point being, after Lofa’s several games against Jackson he thought he needed to bulk up. He got too big and couldn’t tackle and his joints were overtaxed by his strength. He was ultimately too small to play in this league, but his mind was incomparable. Honestly, he should’ve won the DROY over Merriman because Lofa was physically and mentally the leader of the SB defense, but the league doesn’t consider mental responsibilities when deciding these things.

“As you know, the model here is competition.” BS!! if that was the case then why the hell did slapnuts Tjax get the starting nod right off the bat? I understand we are talking defense here but Im assuming bradley is talking about the team as a whole when he refers to the “model”. Be gone, Carroll, be gone……

Bradley said it all when he stated that KJ was “instinctive”. that is the thing Curry has lacked when on the field.
It is also something you cannot coach or teach. you also cannot measure it at the combine. sure you can get a glimpse of it in practice but you never really know until you play a guy.
it is sometimes also called that funny sports term as “A Gamer!”

Kurt “can I carry that out to your car for you” Warner is a classic example of a “Gamer”

I’ll be glad not to have to watch Curry’s sorry hind-end on the field as often. If that idiot would realize he sucks at SAM and try to develop some pass rush moves, he MIGHT have a chance. But I think he’s too dumb to realize it.

I thought Curry was finally looking like his slow brain was catching up to the speed of the game, and that he would have a good year this year…. but then again, KJ Wright really played well against the 49ers. “Instinctive” is right. Reminds me of watching Bryan Cox come out of the 5th round and start in Miami a few years back. Looks like they knew what they were doing when they drafted KJ.

All these “Curry is dumb” comments are really strange to me. I work on and off with one of Dick Butkus’ sons and cousin of OL Asst. Coach Luke B, and he (not Luke) goes to the Butkus Award ceremony every year. When we drafted him, Rick called me and said Curry was the ‘football’ smartest award winner he’d talked to in a long time. That was enough to get me to buy his jersey! Now I’m stuck without a starter jersey for the season…

This is more an indictment on Curry than it is on KJ, but I guarantee he’s not an upgrade right at this moment.

If you rewatch the 49ers game when KJ was said to have played very well, he was getting pushed outside the hash marks all game long by offensive guards. He wasn’t nearly physical enough to make an impact.

I don’t expect much from him this season having to fight through double teams on the edge. This is all just for learning experience.

42 – Tubbs nothing? FYI he is one of the reasons the Seahawks went to their first and only SB. There was a 50 yard rushing discrepancy with him in the game. Sure he was a short term player but the Hawks were 13 – 3 that year. Never better.
Players like Tubbs are also an ILB’s best friend keeping the o line busy with double and triple teams. Ray Lewis will attest to this.

dropped back 20 picks.
What difference did that make? Carimi was there and they past. Last year Carroll took Earl Thomas, a flippin’ safety, over Iupati or Dez Bryant.

Carroll should have countinued to build the team around Hasselbeck until a suitable replacement was in the stable. O line was coming around and Hass has gas in the tank.
TJank has a half before I call for his head. Rice has been out and those D’s the past couple weeks were strong.

Excile are saying that Thomas was a bad pick in comparison to Bryant and iupati?

I really hope not because so far ET is a homerun while Bryant is a whiff and close to getting benched in big D. Iupati is doing OK so far but Moffit is just as good IMHO so passing on him for Duece and getting Moffit this year was a great 2 year move.

When you make a great pick, it’s hard to be too critical of it. I would have taken Iupati over ET on draft day a year ago if that’s who I had to choose from (or including Bryant as well) but I’m certainly not going to criticize the pick. ET is a dang good player and I’m extremely happy to have him, rather than our usual 1st round bust. For the record, I don’t think Moffitt is close to as good as Iupati right now. I like Moffitt and think he’ll be fine and I’m glad to have him though.

Dez Bryant is comPeteing for one football with Witten and Austin when all are on the field. Bryant is a phenom any close friend / co worker will substantiate as my pick. ET is a fine safety. Better than the Hawks have seen in years. But, safeties aren’t to hard to find. IMHO he was drafted to high.

If bradley & PC are so seriuos about competition then maybe we should look at opening the QB position. His agrument is a bunch of BS. Curry got benched because he wasn’t performing up to salary or position on the team. That’s how all players are judge by their salary (worth) and performance. There is no competion amonst the players at every position because if there wa we would maybe Whitehurst get a shot at starting this preseason. Bradley & PC are full of it.

PS I like the move with curry being benched. this is a referrendum on the team as a whole

Damn it is annoying to constantly read should haves and could haves of past drafts. No draft pick is a guaranteed sure superstar NFL starter.
Curry was doing better but has been a bust in regards to his draft position ….but if he had been taken in the 4th round people on this blog would be more able recognize some of his positives. Despite what ACIB says…no team has a LB on their practice squad better than Curry.
I hope Wright excells at this opportunity and I hope it serves as a wake-up call for Curry to concentrate on getting better.

Dez Bryant over ET ? Not for me. One is a model citizen, and lives for his Team, and to play football. The other is a class A a-hole, who lives for himself, and plays football when he d@mn well chooses to. Talented ? Absolutely a monster…..when he decides to be. Sorry, I wouldn’t make that trade.

Really too bad about Curry. He has all the physical tools, the NFL just seems too big for him. Nice guy though. If he’s not going to be here next year, we might as well play someone who will be. I don’t know what other people saw, but I didn’t see any drop-off with him in at MLB instead of Heater…..even as a rookie. Pretty impressive.

I wouldn’t swap Thomas for Bryant either. As good as Bryant may be, Thomas is developing into an elite safety. In addition, it’s far too early in Seattle’s rebuilding to take a WR with their 1st. That’s a Ruskell move, as I see it.

I am making a sacrifice to the football gods to request a win this Sunday.

I can’t much more of the negativism on here. If we go 0-3 I fear mass blog suicides, or a storming of VMAC.

I can’t believe people are already calling for Carroll to be fired. We knew it was going to take time to rebuild this team with younger, faster, more athletic players than we previously had.

Sure a Franchise QB would have been great this year. But that QB first needs to have a solid OL in front of him or you end up with another Carr (thrown right into a starting position with no support and was mentally ruined).

Next year when the OL has had a year to play together the new QB comes in and has a much better chance of success. But here’s a clue. TJ and CW are NOT the QB of the future here. They are just holding down the fort until next year.

Some fans on here just need to pull a rip van winkle and go to sleep until the 2012 season starts. Nothing positive from a win/loss perspective is going to occur this year. If you get caught up in the record you are only frustrating yourselves.

“Hope the Oline can protect the QB. Otherwise we might have to start calling him Varis Jackson, because the Cardinals will beat the Tar out of him.” – Good one Canfan! I would add that I hope he gets rid of the damn ball faster and farther downfield. If not, pull him and get CBJ in there, because he can. He is not as accurate, nor as athletic and durable, but he makes better and quicker decisions.

“I wouldn’t swap Thomas for Bryant either. As good as Bryant may be, Thomas is developing into an elite safety” I totally agree! I love watching his play. Glad he is a Seahawk.

“I hope Wright excels at this opportunity and I hope it serves as a wake-up call for Curry to concentrate on getting better.” – I think that is the point of the switch-up. This will be a good test for KJ.

“I am making a sacrifice to the football gods to request a win this Sunday.”

We need specifics for this to work. Who was that poster last year who agreed to mow the lawn in his wife’s lingerie if the Hawks won?

On another note – Dez Bryant may become a superstar, god knows he looks the part sometimes (if he can stay healthy – which he hasn’t shown yet) – but I’m very happy with ET. I love watching him play – filling in empty spaces with the best speed I think I’ve ever seen in a safety. If we have anyone make the pro bowl this year, it will be him.

People just need to realize and accept that this is the year from hell and focus on 2012. We know Sundays aren’t going to be any fun. Embrace it. Have “fun” with it (or as much as you can, which isn’t any). If they win, be happy and think of the progress we’re making with kids. If they lose, check the standings and see how we’re playing the “Suck for Luck” game. Either way, be happy for awhile.

Thinking about Curry, I was reminded me of Vernon Gholston, picked sixth in 2008… and then I realized, no, Curry reminds me of Alonzo Spellman, picked in the first round by the Bears in ’92. (He finished his career with the Las Vegas Gladiators.) Spellman was the ultimate workout warrior, #1 DE at the combine. After Spellman was drafted, a teammate said of him:

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